Survey Roundup: Labor Lawyers Shift Focus to States

A look at some recent surveys and reports dealing with risk and compliance issues. Send surveys and reports to ben.dipietro@wsj.com.

The State Of Labor: A survey of 1,229 in-house counsel, human resources professionals and C-suite executives by law firm Littler found 79% said changes to state and local labor laws are creating new compliance challenges—with 85% updating policies and procedures, 54% offering additional employee training and half conducting internal audits to try to stay on top of the changing landscape.

“As states and municipalities continue to propose and enact a dizzying array of rules and regulations, it is no wonder employers are struggling with the increasingly fragmented landscape,” said Michael Lotito, co-chair of Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute. “With the Trump administration working to reduce federal regulations, employers can expect a growing patchwork of employment regulations as states and municipalities look to fill a perceived void at the federal level.”

No Incentive: A survey of 400 compliance professionals by the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Health Care Compliance Association found 52% said they never review their organization’s management incentive program, 23% review it before it's approved and 8% do so after it’s approved.

Contract Killers: A survey of around 250 contracting professionals by accounting and advisory firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause LLP found more than four in 10 said they worked at a company where contract-management policies are inconsistently applied, not formally documented or non-existent.

Pay For Privacy: A survey by the International Association of Privacy Professionals and software firm One Trust LLC found the median salary for a privacy professional world-wide is $115,000, with the median salary in the U.S. $130,000 and $95,800 in the European Union.

Resilient Bunch: The fourth annual resilience index report from insurance company FM Global ranked Saudi Arabia as a country with above-average inherent cyber risk, while India has below-average risk. Sweden was ranked the top country for its above-average resilience to natural disasters, with Germany cited as the country with the best supply chain resilience.

Share And Share Alike: A survey of 1,000 office workers in the U.S., Europe and Australia by identity management company SailPoint found 62% said they share credentials with coworkers, while 42% said they would sell their password to a third party.

Talk Of Insecurity: A survey of 381 corporate directors at publicly traded companies by NYSE Governance Services and software firm Diligent Corp. found 90% use unsecured personal email accounts to sometimes communicate with other board members and management.

Suits Down: A report from PwC found the number of patent cases filed in 2016 was about 5,100, down 9% from 2015.

Bad Trade: A report by research and advisory group Global Financial Integrity found trade fraud removed between $620 billion and $970 billion from the developing world in 2014.

Wall Of Confusion: A survey of around 400 organizations by security management firm FireMon found 70% said they have 10 or more firewalls, while two-thirds said they use more than one firewall vendor in the same environment.

De-risky Business: A report from the Financial Integrity Network looks at the impact de-risking is having on the financial services sector.